Who/What Are Some Authors or Works You Think Are Seminal But Underrated?

I’m particularly thinking of authors and works whose influence is culturally significant but perhaps forgotten and understated. I came across the name of Juan Rualfo and how criminally under-spoken his works are amongst the greater public but which influenced so many of that later generation of Latin American artists and writers like Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Rualfo is literally a core reason we have One Hundred Years of Solitude).

I’d love to hear of any authors outside of the Anglo-sphere/western world, as well, whose works are foundational and formative but perhaps rarely break through that barrier of awareness here in the West. Authors from the Caribbean, the African continent, Asia (Central, South, East), Oceania, etc. Indigenous authors from places and cultures that aren’t always embraced or granted much visibility.

What makes them so culturally significant? How have you noted their influences?

Thanks ahead of time!